Vast amounts of opinion data is now available on the Internet, through a wide range of web sites that permit users to provide input, and the amount of such opinion data continues to increase rapidly. This opinion data could be of great use, beyond the particular web site for which it was created, if it could be “harvested” (or collected) and summarized in a useful way. For example, persons involved in the marketing or management of a brand “x” have a great interest in knowing what people think about brand “x” in relation to other brands.
It would therefore be highly desirable to provide a system that can process and summarize opinion data in an automated way.